Elena Kagan became the fourth female justice in history on Saturday and the 112th US Supreme Court member after President Barack Obama won Senate approval for his second appointment to the high court. Kagan, formerly Obama's solicitor general in arguing US government cases before the Supreme Court, was sworn in by her new colleague, Chief Justice John Roberts, at the court.
He administered the constitutional and then the judicial oath in a ceremony attended by a small gathering of Kagan's family and friends. After the oath was given, Roberts welcomed Kagan to the court. For the first time, the nine-member court will have three women as Kagan joins Justice Sonia Sotomayor, who was Obama's first appointee, and Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.